Erin Brockovich is a 2000
biographical film which dramatizes the story of
Erin Brockovich's legal fight against the
US West Coast energy corporation
Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E). The film was directed by
Steven Soderbergh and starred
Julia Roberts, who won the
Academy Award,
Golden Globe,
Screen Actors' Guild Award and
BAFTA for
Best Actress. The film itself was also nominated for
Best Picture and
Best Director for Steven Soderbergh at the
73rd Academy Awards. It is based on a true story, and the real
Erin Brockovich has a
cameo appearance as a waitress named Julia.
Plot
Erin Brockovich (
Julia Roberts) is an unemployed
single mother of three children who, after losing a personal injury lawsuit against a doctor in a car accident she was in, asks her lawyer,
Edward L. Masry (
Albert Finney), if he can find her a job in compensation for the loss. Ed gives her work as a file
clerk in his office, and she runs across some files on a
pro bono case involving medical records in real-estate files and
PG&E offering to purchase the home of
Hinkley, California, resident Donna Jensen.
Erin begins digging into the particulars of the case, convinced that the facts simply do not add up, and persuades Ed to allow her further research. After investigation, she discovers a systematic cover-up of the industrial poisoning (
hexavalent chromium) of the town of Hinkley's water supply that threatens the health of the entire community. She finds that PG&E is responsible for the...
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